This invention relates to a door package. There are a variety of requirements that dictate what types of doors can be used in specific settings, and which directly affect door package design and offerings thereof. Some examples of such requirements include building codes, safety codes, customer requirements, or other various types of code requirements.
This is particularly true for hospital environments, such as intensive care units (ICUs), in which an increase of requirements has recently been seen. One requirement is that the door is trackless, that is, the door does not have any threshold or similar arrangement across the door opening, so as to minimize collection of bacteria and various types of debris, and such that patients and ICU equipment can be easily moved through the door opening. Another requirement is that the door should have a U.L. air leakage rated seal around its perimeter, in order to create a seal that serves to minimize germ contamination inside the room by reducing air leakage and infiltration. Furthermore, the door should have a positive latch, that is, the door should be possible to secure to the door jamb, so that the door cannot open by itself after the door has been closed. A positive latch is also required to have a handle that protrudes from the door face, that is, so-called flush pull or finger pull handles are not acceptable.
It is also desirable to have a clear door opening that is as large as possible. This is in order to be able to easily move patients in beds and various types of equipment in and out of the room. Additionally, it is desirable to have a door that is capable of Full Breakout (FBO), so that there is a full package opening clearance for “Emergency Egress” or large equipment passage, and so on. It should be noted that these are merely some examples that are presented in a general way, and that there may be many further, and/or more specific requirements than those listed here.
Generally, existing designs of door packages can meet only a subset of all these requirements. As a result, hospitals typically need to decide from case to case which features are more desirable than others and make a tradeoff by using a door that satisfies the requirements that are deemed to be the most important for the particular use. Whereas this might be sufficient in some cases, it would be desirable to have a door package that is able to meet all code, safety, and customer requirements for a hospital environment, such as an ICU, so that these tradeoffs did not have to be made.